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Essays

Every event we host is designed with intention, from the atmosphere we create to the way each session flows.

Welcome. This is where I write about the parts of life most people feel but rarely name — identity shifts, reinvention, the psychology of becoming, the collapse of old narratives, and the quiet transformations happening beneath the surface of everyday life.

My essays live at the intersection of applied psychology, lived experience, and the new world we’re all trying to understand. I write about what it means to outgrow an old self, to rebuild after loss, to navigate uncertainty, to discover new capability, and to evolve in a world that’s changing faster than the stories we were given.

I don’t write to inspire.
I write to tell the truth — the kind that helps people recognize themselves in the middle of their own transition.

You’ll find pieces here on identity, reinvention, human behavior, cultural shifts, and the future of how we live and work. Some essays are personal. Some are analytical. All of them come from the same place: an honest attempt to understand who we’re becoming and what it takes to build a life that fits the person we are now.

If you’re navigating change, searching for clarity, or simply trying to make sense of the world and your place in it, you’re in the right place.

Insights, Essays, Perspectives Keri Tietjen Smith Insights, Essays, Perspectives Keri Tietjen Smith

The Systems Didn’t Break in 2025. They Hit Their Design Limits.

A lot of people ended 2025 exhausted in ways that didn’t quite make sense. Not because they failed, but because the systems they were operating inside reached their design limits. This essay explores what happens when efficiency-optimized systems collide with volatility, and why the strain often shows up in people instead of processes.

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Foundational, The Age of Transition, Human Systems Keri Tietjen Smith Foundational, The Age of Transition, Human Systems Keri Tietjen Smith

A Crisis of Coherence

We’ve been outgrowing our systems faster than we admit. Technology didn’t just accelerate change, it broke the assumptions our institutions were built on. Instead of redesigning them, we optimized around the edges and called the strain on people “resilience.”

This isn’t a crisis of talent or leadership. It’s a crisis of coherence.

AI didn’t create it. It exposed it.

The question now is whether our human systems can evolve without breaking the people inside them.

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Press Keri Tietjen Smith Press Keri Tietjen Smith

Feature: The Psychology of Becoming

USA News recently published a feature exploring Keri Tietjen Smith’s work on identity transformation and the psychology of becoming, examining how personal change unfolds through integration rather than reinvention during periods of disruption.

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